GIP’s second fund attracted more than its initial target of
$7.5 billion as investors expect cash-strapped governments to
open the door to private acquisition of assets, Chairman Adebayo
Ogunlesi said in an interview. The firm in 2008 raised $5.64
billion for its first fund, which owns stakes in the Australia’s
Port of Brisbane and East India Petroleum Ltd.

“If you look around the world, governments are under
tremendous fiscal pressure, so they really don’t have the
capability to continue to invest,” Ogunlesi said. “Private-sector investment is going to have to fill some of that void.”

GIP, started by Credit Suisse Group AG and General Electric
Co. in 2006, will use the new fund to invest primarily in
operating businesses in developed markets, said Ogunlesi, who
was head of investment banking at Credit Suisse First Boston,
the securities unit of Zurich-based Credit Suisse at the time.
The firm, which oversees $15 billion, has teams dedicated to
investments and the portfolio’s operations and draws on a group
of former executives as senior advisers. It focuses on the
energy, transport and water and waste industries.

’Defensive Investment’

“Everybody is looking at quantitative easing and the U.K.
equivalent and extended periods of a lot of liquidity, the
corollary of which is that people are afraid inflation may show
up,” said Ogunlesi. “People look at having hard assets as a
defensive investment, and they like that. That proved to be very
attractive to investors this time around.”

GIP said last month it will acquire most of Chesapeake
Energy Corp.’s pipeline and processing assets for $2.7 billion.
In June, GIP agreed to buy Chesapeake’s share of a publicly
traded pipeline partnership, now called Access Midstream
Partners LP.

The firm, led by Ogunlesi and nine other partners, owns 42
percent of Gatwick after investing $314 million in 2009,
according to GIP’s website. The firm also owns Scotland’s
Edinburgh Airport, in which it invested $1.3 billion, and 75
percent of London City Airport, the website shows.

The new fund, which gathered about one-third of its capital
from clients in the first pool, offered tiered levels of fee
terms based on the amount an investor committed and whether they
participated in the first fund, said Ogunlesi. GIP’s investors
include sovereign-wealth funds, endowments and corporate and
public pension funds, including those from Maine, Oregon and
Washington.